Details
| First Name | Amanda |
| Last Name | Zimlich |
| Nickname | ChefAmanda |
Social Media
My Ceramics
| In the studio I like to do | Handbuilding, Throwing on the Wheel, Sculpting |
| Pottery Wheel | 60's Shimpo Ring Cone Poppet & older Brent CXC |
| Clay body | Stoneware, Porcelain |
| Clay Brand | Laguna #16, Tacoma Clay Arts Oregon Brown, Red, Laguna Speckled Buff, Coleman Raku |
| Kiln Type | Electric Kiln, Raku Kiln, Pit firing |
| Kiln Atmosphere | Oxidation Atmosphere |
| Temperature | 2200 |
| Glaze | I formulate and mix my own, I really enjoy strontium crystal glazes, natural ash glazes, matte glazes, and reaction glazes. Most are mid fire |
| You can buy my work from | At my inn, holiday art markets on Orcas Island Washington and around the area |
About Me
| Introduction | I am a chef by training and background, enamored with ceramics and a potter. I own and run a boutique inn on Orcas Island in beautiful Washington State.
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| What I Love about Ceramics | I love that clay is malleable and adopts our mood as we work with it- to me it is a lot like food in that way. Feeling relaxed and cool, it takes on fluidity. Feeling spicy and alert, and edges become sharper. I also love that the pottery making process is multi-layered and time consuming- there are millions of rabbit holes to go down and get lost in.
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| How I started with ceramics | Pottery has historic roots on Orcas Island, and I am enjoying learning from a wide variety of local potters and meeting our many wonderful clay community members locally. I look forward to learning from the broader clay community here! |
| What inspires me | My specific interests are in wheel throwing, exploring the Arts and Crafts style and decoration with my functional pieces, glaze formulation to emulate 1920s Arts and Crafts pottery guild glazes like Newcomb and Grueby etc. |
| What I'm working on at the moment | Looking forward to a week+ intensive workshop in Clay NY with Tim See! Getting ready for that with making small raku pieces to be ready to learn the ins and outs of different firing techniques. |
| My Artist Statement | From Cooking to Ceramics My work is markedly influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement of the early 1900s.This movement’s philosophy embraces craftsmanship, highlighting the natural world and resisting the impersonal stamp of industrialization. It is to ceramics as “farm-to-fork” is to modern cuisine. The movement’s framework, highlighting raw beauty, seasonality and simplicity with intention makes my transition from food to clay appear not quite so random. I am currently pursuing a Mastery of Ceramic Arts with The Ceramic School of Feldkirchen, Austria, where I am learning from and with ceramic artists from all over the world in a new Ceramics Research & Mentorship Program. Leveraging the expertise and coaching of my artist mentors, I am currently focusing on perfecting throwing techniques with porcelain and am also developing unique spraying and dipping glazes for my work. The landscapes and wildlife of the San Juan Islands serve as my muse as I experiment with sculptural designs and textures. I created Owl Hollow Studio at Otters Pond in 2024 as an outlet for my pottery. I invite you to stop in to Otters Pond Bed and Breakfast and shop my showcase, make an appointment to visit me in my garage studio, or come stay at Otters Pond Bed and Breakfast! I look forward to sharing with you.
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